Palestinian car thief changes settler's tyre

An Israeli businesswoman living on a Jewish settlement said a Palestinian car thief changed her wheel after a puncture left her stranded at night on a West Bank road, a newspaper reported.

"I felt lost standing next to my vehicle, south of Hebron, not knowing what to do and fearing the worst," Guishra Schwartz, who runs a factory manufacturing cosmetics in a nearby settlement, told the daily Maariv.

"Suddenly a Palestinian came out of the shadows and offered to help. He got out of a vehicle he said he had stolen in Beersheva (southern Israel), and I was terrified," she said.

"But he immediately told me not to worry and started changing the wheel, explaining that it was his duty to help Israelis because of the truce," the businesswoman added.

Israelis travelling at night in the West Bank have often been targeted by Palestinian militants since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising.

The latest victim was an Israeli taxi-driver who was kidnapped last Friday and rescued by security forces late Tuesday.

On June 29, four radical Palestinian factions, including the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, announced a suspension of anti-Israeli attacks for at least three months.